How does one become British?

My boss, a chap from (London)Derry says I'm British as I like London Pride, support England rugby/football/cricket team, eat fish and chips, dislike the French and drink Scotch instead of Jamesons. As much as I can laugh at this (he considers himself Irish and definitely not British), I wonder: when do you become British? Is it the passport? Is it the residency? Is it watching American comedies and being bored? Or is it Hope stickers with the Union Jack? What's the STW's verdict on this?

If you drink too much, work over long hours, expect your national teams to do crap in any major sporting event and fully expect to be fleeced by the government every time the budget rolls around, and hate the French, you are probably British...or am I just a cynic?

I've lived here for 16 years, wife's English, kids were born here, I'm happily settled, country's been really good to me workwise, no longer any connections to the Antipodean 'scene', but there's no way I'd consider myself British or English- even if I were to get a passport.

Do you feel an inexplicable rage whenever you see the countryside being uglified by giant faceless corporations and bureaucrats? Do you find yourself shouting at the radio when Tony Blair comes on? Do your summer holidays involve sitting in the car in a small seaside town, watching the rain swishing past the windscreen while eating fish and slightly warm chips (and of course curry sauce)? Would a pint of actual proper beer (no, not lager) somehow make the world seem slightly more bearable?

I'm born & bred Leeds, support Leeds Utd but couldn't give a rat's arse about England, the national team representing the country of my birth. Does that make me not-British? Or not-English anyway?

no, it's an accident of birth

and as far as I remember, my passport says "United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland". So if your friend has a UK passport, I'd say that makes him (a) Irish and (b) a UK citizen; if he has an Irish passport then he'd be just Irish.
To be British, would one have to be English, Welsh or Scottish, under that definition?

Big Dave - Member
If you drink too much, work over long hours, expect your national teams to do crap in any major sporting event and fully expect to be fleeced by the government every time the budget rolls around, and hate the French, you are probably British...or am I just a cynic?

That would also make you Spanish.

Personally, I'm English, and European. I've got a British passport, but that's only because I'm legally obliged to have one.

That's absurd.
And yes PP you are english, using any logic.
You may live elsewhere but the will locals all see you as english wether they say so or not.
I wouldn't be a yorkshireman if I moved to yorkshire would I?